About Mabel Taliaferro
Lived 1887 – 1979 (aged 91). Mabel Taliaferro was an American actor, film actor and suffragist.
Mabel Taliaferro (born Maybelle Evelyn Taliaferro; May 21, 1887 – January 24, 1979) was an American stage and silent-screen actress, known as "the Sweetheart of American Movies."
Taliaferro was a sister of film and stage actress Edith Taliaferro and the cousin of actress Bessie Barriscale.
Career
Taliaferro began acting on stage at age 2
In the first decade of the 20th century, Taliaferro's husband and manager, Frederic Thompson, announced that her first name would be changed to Nell for billing purposes. Her first production with her new name was Springtime, and the change brought an outcry of opposition from the public. By 1910, she was once again Mabel.
In 1911, her movie career began with the Selig Studios in The Three of Us and the film version of Cinderella She continued performing in films through her retirement in 1921. In 1940, she appeared in her final picture, My Love Came Back.
Suffrage activism Mabel Taliaferro was known as favoring women's suffrage. In February 1914 she participated in a suffrage gathering that drew 1,500 people to honor the work of Anna Howard Shaw.
Personal life and death
In 1906, Taliaferro married (as her first husband) Frederic Thompson, who created Luna Park in Coney Island as well as the New York Hippodrome, under whose management she starred in the Broadway play Polly of the Circus.
On January 11, 1920, Taliaferro married army officer Joseph Patrick O'Brien in Darien, Connecticut. They were divorced in Reno, Nevada on June 3, 1929. She also married and divorced actor Thomas Jay Carrigan. Taliaferro married Robert Ober. He died in 1950. She had one child.
In 1907, she was injured in a car crash. She died in Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 24, 1979, aged 91.
Filmography My Love Came Back (1940) Alexander Hamilton (1924) The Rich Slave (1921) Sentimental Tommy (1921) The Mite of Love (1919) Draft 258 (1917) Peggy Leads the Way (1917, extant) The Jury of Fate (1917) Peggy, the Will O' the Wisp (1917) A Magdalene of the Hills (1917) The Barricade (1917) A Wife by Proxy (1917, extant) The Sunbeam (1916) The Dawn of Love (1916) God's Half Acre (1916), extant) The Snowbird (1916), extant) Her Great Price (1916) The Three of Us (1914) The Sunbeam (1912) Cinderella (1911; released January 1, 1912)
Stage
Springtime Folly (1951) Bloomer Girl (1946) Victory Belles (1944) George Washington Slept Here (1941) The Prince's Secret (1935) Back Fire (1932) The Piper (1920) Luck in Pawn (1919) Young Wisdom (1914) The Call of the Cricket (1910) Springtime (1909) Polly of the Circus (1907) Pippa Passes (1906) You Never Can Tell (1905) Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1905) The Land of Heart's Desire (1903) The Consul (1903) The Little Princess (1903) An American Invasion (1902) The Price of Peace (1901) Lost River (1900) Children of the Ghetto (1899)
TV The De Santre Story (1956) The Hat from Hangtown (1952) Mistress Sims Inherits (1949) You Can't Take It with You (1945)
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Important facts
Family & relationships
People in Mabel Taliaferro's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Mabel Taliaferro's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Mabel Taliaferro?
actress (1887-1979)
When was Mabel Taliaferro born?
Mabel Taliaferro was born on 21 May 1887 in New York City.
When did Mabel Taliaferro die?
Mabel Taliaferro died on 24 January 1979 in Honolulu.
What was Mabel Taliaferro's occupation?
Mabel Taliaferro was an actor, film actor and suffragist.
What nationality was Mabel Taliaferro?
Mabel Taliaferro was American.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Mabel Taliaferro. https://biography.guide/mabel-taliaferro/
MLA: "Mabel Taliaferro." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/mabel-taliaferro/.
Chicago: "Mabel Taliaferro." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/mabel-taliaferro/.
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